Truckee soccer | Boys drop close battle to Sparks, girls cruise

<b>Courtesy Nick Lee</b>Truckee senior Nico Kuyper tries to steal the ball away from a Railroader during their Mount Rose League game at Sparks on Thursday. Sparks, the defending champs, won 4-2 to remain undefeated.

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The Truckee boys and girls split their Mount Rose League soccer games at Sparks this past Thursday, as the girls cruised to a 4-0 win and the boys lost 4-2.

Truckee's boys, who defeated El Camino (Calif.) 2-0 on Saturday, are now 12-2 on the season, with both losses coming against the defending champion Railroaders.

It was all Truckee in the girls' game as the Wolverines put up a trio of first-half goals en route to the easy win, which improved their record to 9-3-1 overall and 1-0-1 in Mount Rose League play.

Truckee broke the scoreless tie 21 minutes into the match on a Melissa Cardoza goal. Marcelle Reynaud made it a 2-0 game when she scored in the 26th minute.

The Wolverines also got goals from Ashley Harris, in the 39th minute, and Olivia Duner, in the 50th minute.

While Sparks was never really in contention, its senior goalkeeper, Val Guerrero, saved 24 Truckee shots to keep the score from getting overly lopsided. Truckee finished with 34 shots on goal compared to Sparks' seven. Sparks fell to 0-5-3.

The boys played another physical match against the Railroaders, who defeated Truckee 3-1 in the season-opening Galena Tournament and remain undefeated at 13-0.

Truckee scored two goals but Sparks sandwiched those with two of its own on each side to capture a 4-2 league triumph.

The two teams engaged in scoreless play through much of the first half before Sparks eventually found the scoring column. In the 26th minute, Oscar Gomez posted the first goal of the match thanks to an assist from Juan Hernandez.

Then, in the 39th minute, Hector Hernandez found the back of the net with an unassisted goal. The next minute elapsed and the two schools went into halftime with Sparks holding a 2-0 advantage.

“We had good communication,” Sparks coach Frank Avilla said. “We’ve had a hard last week of practices. Our coaches got together and we kind of changed up our schemes. We thought Truckee had a weakness defensively and we attacked that. It was successful.”

Truckee showed some offense after the break. The Wolverines scored at the 57- and 70-minute marks — with Colten Roderigue scoring first and Ruben Diaz following up — to pull into a 2-2 deadlock with just 10 minutes remaining in the match.

The tie was short-lived. Three minutes later, Gomez added his second score of the day. Ruben Pacheco handled the assist duties on the go-ahead goal.

There was no more magic in the Truckee offense for a potential game-tying goal. In fact, Sparks notched an insurance tally when it scored its final goal of the match, in the 78th minute.

“I think the biggest thing was we fought toe-to-toe for 70 minutes,” Truckee coach Casey Eberhardt said. “Then we had a couple letdowns defensively that gave them just enough space to get a good shot off. That was the difference in the game.”

The Railroaders fired 22 shots on the Truckee goal while Truckee managed just seven shots on the day.

Against El Camino, Jesse Fereira scored a goal assisted by Roderigue in the 56th minute, and Fernando Rodriguez scored unassisted in the 55th minute.

UP NEXT: Truckee will compete in a crossover tournament against the Lahontan League on the road Friday and Saturday.